Reflection week beginning 12th June 2017 Greatness Reflection week beginning 12th June 2017

Charles Dickens – a great author One of England’s greatest authors, Charles Dickens, died in June in 1870. He had started school at the age of 9 but had to leave when his father was imprisoned for debt. Charles Dickens was then aged 12 and he had to get a job to support himself. He found work in a shoepolish factory, but felt humiliated and not in control of his own life. This experience would haunt him for the rest of his life. Later he would write a book called ‘David Copperfield’, which reflected his own difficult experiences as a child.

Stories with a meaning.. Dickens used some of his novels to point out that many people suffered greatly at that time in Victorian England. These stories were a good way of encouraging people to look at how they might help make their part of the world a better place.

Funeral Charles Dickens died in 1870. Queen Victoria wrote of him in her diary: “He is a very great loss. He had a large loving mind, and the strongest sympathy with the poor.” He was buried in Westminster Abbey beside the graves of the nation’s kings and queens and other famous people.

To reflect on… We can reflect on some words written by Charles Dickens: “Some great people make others feel small, but the real great people are those who make others feel great.” How can you make someone else feel great today?